Category: Penitential Rites

PRIEST:      A few days ago we celebrated our mission as a Church to proclaim the Good News to all;  in a few days time we shall celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit with the power needed to fulfil our Christ-commissioned task.  Today,  on this World Communication Sunday, we pray for wisdom and courage in using the new Internet Technology and the revolution in Mass Communications to proclaim the Gospel; and we cry out for the Spirit to empower us to communicate the Gospel to our generation. Let us recognise our need for forgiveness and healing to set us free to speak God’s Word to our world…

READER:   For every disunity that wounds Christ’s Body
and damages our witness to his love…

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY …

                         For every abuse and misuse of the media and the internet,
                         for not caring enough about the newspapers, TV programmes
and computer images that are seen and heard in our homes…

                                              CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

                          For every barrier to the Spirit’s coming
                          that we place in our lives and our community;
                          for refusing to risk for the Gospel…

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:      May the God of immense love
take our failures and sins in his merciful hands
                               and kindle with them a fire of love
                              that will bring healing & peace, reconciliation
                              and new beginnings to us to our world,
                         leading us all to everlasting life…

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST:   Today we celebrate our Mission as a Church – for Jesus sends us out to the whole world to be his witnesses. Today we celebrate Jesus enthroned as our King,  as he goes up to his throne with shouts of Joy and in the Cloud of divine Presence,  and all the powers of heaven and earth are made subject to him, exalted in Glory. Today we celebrate the immensity of our human dignity,  as in Jesus our brother, our human flesh is taken up into the very presence of God.  Today is a day of great rejoicing  and Jesus’ great trust in us.  Let us empty our hearts of the sin that limits our joy.

READER:    For the fear and narrowness of vision that stops us
being a missionary community…

                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY …

When we claim Jesus as our King,
                          but fail to walk his Royal Way of love,
fail to give him first priority in our lives…

                                                  CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

Whenever another human person is abused,
                         their dignity ignored or diminished;
                         for leaving our brothers and sisters to starve of food or freedom

                                                  LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:       May the God who calls us to eternal glory
transfigure our every weakness;
                         May Jesus our High Priest clothe us
with the mercy He has won for us by his blood;
                        May the Spirit who dwells in every human heart
heal every wound that diminishes us;
                        and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST:    Today the Word of God begins to point us towards the coming Feast of Pentecost,  speaking as it does of the Spirit, the other Advocate who will stand with us and speak up for us.  As we approach this great Feast of the Spirit’s Power and Love and as we prepare for the Confirmation of our young people, let us all seek a deeper openness to the Spirit, to empower our community as a Parish in Mission here in the Inner City. Let us ask forgiveness for every way that we resist the Holy Spirit in our life and our Church…

READER:            The Spirit is wisdom …
                                 when we seek wisdom elsewhere,
                                 and do not listen to the voice of the Spirit…

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY…

The Spirit is unity …
                                   for the times we have served division
                                   rather than unity by our separatism and arrogance
and our refusal to understand the other…

                                                   CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

The Spirit is love …
                                    when we have denied our love, our compassion,
                                    our forgiveness to another…

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:            May our God who is all love
                              speak his Word of Mercy,
                              breath his Spirit of forgiveness,
                              and send us to be reconciliation
                             for one another and for our world,
                             to bring all creation to everlasting life…

                                                      AMEN!

PRIEST:    Jesus Christ is risen among us … to be our Way, our Truth and our Life.  And His Way is a journey of service to the poor;  His Truth is freedom for the broken and despairing;  His Life is healing and hope for a fractured world.  Like the seven Deacons, whose appointment we hear of today, we too are called to do the works of love that is Christ’s Mission today.  Let us repent of the occasions when we fail to be good servants of the Kingdom.

READER:       Jesus is the Way…
when we follow our own ways
                             and do not walk humbly with him

                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

Jesus is the Truth…
when we fail to listen to His Gospel that sets us free,
                              and prefer the world’s hollow truths that enslave  

                                               CHRIST HAVE MERCY

Jesus is the Life…
when we do not reverence the life of every person, of all creation,
                               when we do not love enough to give others
new life and new hope

                                               LORD HAVE MERCY

PRIEST:          May the God of all compassion lead us in His peace
                            that we might walk his Way;
                            free us with His mercy
                            that we might proclaim His liberating truth
                            and restore us in his love
                            that we might live always as signs of his love;
                            and bring us and our world to everlasting life…

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST:  Jesus calls himself the Gate of the Sheepfold – as the Flock of Christ we can go freely into God’s presence through Him. He is the Good Shepherd who calls to us to listen to His voice and follow Him wherever He leads. He also lays down his life for his sheep – for us. We discover our fulness of life in him, as we live our own particular vocation,  Indeed we all share the vocation to live for others, to be life-bearers, to be witnesses to the glorious truth of Christ. We now pause to examine how well we have answered our special vocation.

READER:   For not making space in our busy lives and noisy hearts
                         to listen to the voice of the Shepherd

                                       LORD HAVE MERCY…

                         For listening to the voices of ambition and selfishness,
the voices of security and safe-options,
                         and not following the Shepherd wherever he leads us

                                       CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

                          When we leave the work of serving our community to others,
                          and do not play our part in building the Church or the Kingdom –
                          for not being a  shepherd to each other

                                       LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:     May the God who calls us into life, forgive us;
                        May our Redeemer and Shepherd, Jesus, free us with his mercy;
                        May the Holy Spirit empower us to give of ourselves with generosity
                        and so find everlasting life…

                                       AMEN!

PRIEST:    We gather today to celebrate Resurrection, and like the Emmaus disciples have a story to tell. But our story is our experience of Jesus in the Church and in the broken bread of Word and Eucharist. So at this moment in the Church’s story, we once again recognise Him in the Breaking of Bread. Whenever the Bread of Friendship, Bread of Love, Bread of Justice is broken and shared, He is Risen and among us.  Let us seek forgiveness when our love is too shallow to recognise Him with us.

READER:     When we fail to stand alongside each other in the painful days,
and our eyes are closed to the Christ in each other

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY …

When we do not value the Eucharist,
                            when we neglect the Word of God in the Bible,
and so limit our understanding and love of Him

                                                   CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

When we are so slow to bear witness before others to our Risen Christ;
                             when we hide our faith from others’ gaze
                             and do not invite them to eat of the Broken Bread of Life

                                                   LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:       May the God of all compassion
                         who stands with us in our every grief of sin
                         bring us peace and mercy,
                         and open our eyes to know that we are forgiven and reconciled
                        in the power of the Risen Christ,
                        who brings us and all creation to everlasting life…

                                                     AMEN!

PRIEST:  In today’s Gospel we hear a story of doubt that becomes magnificent faith;  a story of wounds that breath peace and healing;  a story of frightened empty men who become courageous in the Holy Spirit;  a story of a community witnessing the Risen Christ.  It is the story not only of the apostles, but also of each one of us;  not only the early Church,  but the Church of every age and land – the story of our own parish.  Let us welcome the Risen Jesus among us to transform us and our community – that we might be life-givers.

READER:        We give thanks for God’s mercy, flowing from the Father’s love
for He has brought us from doubt to deeper faith

                                                LORD HAVE MERCY…

                              We give thanks for God’s mercy, made flesh in Jesus the Crucified
for his wounds are our peace

                                                CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

                              We give thanks for God’s mercy, breathed into us by the Holy Spirit
for he has filled our emptiness
                              and sent us as bearers of reconciling love

                                                LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:         May God our creator give us the peace of his forgiveness;
                            may the Risen Jesus heal our wounds and transform our weak love;
                           may the Spirit breathe new courage and deeper faith, reconciling us to everlasting life…

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST:  This is the Night of the Passover Supper, the night Jesus promised to remain always among his beloved friends in the Broken Bread of Life and the Shared Cup of Love. At this Last Supper he shared the deep vision of His Heart with us: dreaming of a people who served, not dominated, lived by trust, not by false security … let us ask forgiveness when we have not lived our His vision, shared His love, given His peace….

READER:    This night Jesus said to us:
                          “Love one another as I have loved you” …
whenever we have hurt another by our words,
neglected another by our selfishness,
                          saddened another by the coldness of our hearts….
                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

This night Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, and said to us:
                           “You should wash each other’s feet” …
                            when we and God’s Church seek to dominate rather than to serve,
                             to protect ourselves rather than stand with the poor and oppressed,
                             stand aloof from the world
rather than be involved with a servant’s love…

                                            CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

This night Jesus prayed:
                               “Father, may they always be one, as you and I are one” …
                                for every sin of disunity, for every complacency with divisions,
                                for every resistance to change in the search for unity in the Body of Christ.

                                            LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:    On this night of Passover, may the Father unite us in forgiveness,
                      may Jesus our Brother and Servant Lord
                      … be the Lamb of God taking our sins away,
                      may the Holy Spirit be the fire of healing love in each of our hearts,
                      and bring us all everlasting life….

                                                AMEN!

PRIEST:      In just two weeks time we shall celebrate the incomparable joy of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus foreshadows his own resurrection by bringing his friend Lazarus from the tomb into life. He reveals to all that he is victorious over death itself.  But the greatest victory Jesus wins is over the death that is sin, which distorts and wounds our world with its oppressive structures.  Let us repent, and invite Jesus to rise victorious over sin and oppression within us, unbinding us and setting us free.

READER:      For not setting free those trapped in the tombs
of war and violence, poverty, oppression and modern slavery;
                            for not loving enough to free people from loneliness & depression

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY…

When we bind each other by our criticism and condemnation;
                             for entombing others in our un-forgiveness and harshness

                                              CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

Because you call our name and draw us out of death and sin
                             into life, freedom, wholeness, holiness and humanity

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:    You are a God of Life, not of death:
                       may your mercy unbind us and heal us,
                       your word call us into life and reconciliation,
                       and your forgiveness lead us to perfect freedom,
                       drawing us to everlasting life…

                                                  AMEN!

PRIEST:    Today we rejoice:  it is ‘Laetare Sunday’ – a day to celebrate that the call to Lenten conversion is a call to a deeper joy. We hear the Gospel of the healing of the blind man at the pool of Siloam. Our deepest joy is to grow into Christ; to reflect his light onto our tragically war-torn and poverty-stricken world; to embrace his world with a love that will heal humanity’s blindness to injustice and oppression.  That today is also ‘Mothering Sunday’ gives us yet more reason to rejoice as we thank God for the gift of the mothers who have given us life and love.  Let us ask forgiveness for so many refusals to recognise the depth of God’s love for us,  sometimes our mother’s love for us…

READER:      When we refuse to see the evil of war
                            when we will not see the suffering or joy of those around us;
when we have closed our eyes and hearts to another’s need for friendship and caring …

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY …

For ignoring the injustices in our world or in our own hearts;
when we take for granted the love of our mothers and families and fail to give thanks –
                             when we do not tell those to whom we are close that we love them …

                                              CHRIST HAVE MERCY …

When we will not see and trust in God’s deep love for us;
                               when pain or crisis makes us blind to the God who holds us,
and to friends who care for us …

                                              LORD HAVE MERCY …

PRIEST:      May the God of joy set us free with loving mercy;
                         may Jesus our Brother heal us of wilful blindness to love;
                         may the Holy Spirit wash us clean in the pool of God’s compassion and forgiveness;
                         and bring us all to everlasting life…

                                                 AMEN!